Cobra Kai Series Ending: Johnny & Daniel's Relationship At The End Of Season 6 Explained By Ralph Macchio

WARNING: This interview includes SPOILERS from Cobra Kai season 6, part 3.While Cobra Kai never dies, the story of the Karate Kid spinoff has reached its conclusion, loaded with happy endings for long-time characters like Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso. While Cobra Kai season 6 began with the focus of winning the Sekai Taikai, the middle of the final season forced the karate rivalry to be halted. As Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 resulted in the ultimate karate brawl to take place in episode 10, lives were lost as the world witnessed, through live-broadcasting, the tragic death of Kwon Jae-Sung.

Even though the disaster at the Sekai Taikai had forced the tournament to get canceled, it didn't take too long until the remaining dojos came to an agreement to resume it, setting the stage for the final karate showdown of the Netflix drama. Despite Terry Silver's attempt at manipulating the odds, once again, the Sekai Taikai ended with Johnny and Cobra Kai as the ultimate winners.

As fans will see Daniel's story continue in the Karate Kid franchise later this year, Cobra Kai season 6 is the end of an era for Macchio as ScreenRant caught up with the actor about entering the final five hours of the Netflix series and the challenges his character had to overcome.

Ralph Macchio Opens Up On Closing The Cobra Kai Chapter In His Karate Kid Legacy

"It connects on all those levels with the cheers and the tears and all those feels of that."

Reaching six seasons is an incredible accomplishment, especially in today's television landscape, and for Cobra Kai, which began on YouTube Red (now known as YouTube Premium,) it became one of the biggest entries for Netflix once it moved over to the popular streaming service. For a franchise like the Karate Kid universe to continue staying relevant and beloved through the series, Cobra Kai season 6 was able to go out on its own terms.

"It feels great. I mean, I really like where the show lands," Macchio shared when asked by ScreenRant how it felt being able to properly finish Daniel's journey in Cobra Kai ahead of his return in Karate Kid: Legends. "I think you run the risk of overstaying your welcome and we were right at the cusp of that. It was time to land the plane in Cobra Kai proper, at least in my view. I mean, there's only so many seasons. You could keep having the argument about karate in the valley, take it to the world stage and then bring it back home. So I think Daniel LaRusso lands in a really good way. It seems true and honest and genuine to the character that was created back in ‘83. Bumps and bruises on the way through the karate soap opera of Cobra Kai. It wraps up in that big ‘80s movie feel. It connects on all those levels with the cheers and the tears and all those feels of that. I'm happy and proud of it.

How Daniel LaRusso Tackled His Own Trauma In Cobra Kai Season 6

"But just when they thought he was out, they pull him back in."

In a dream, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) reunites with Mr. Miyagi in Cobra Kai Season 6 Ep 13

As Cobra Kai season 6 forced Daniel to deal with the hard reality that he didn't know Mr. Miyagi as well as he thought he did, the beginning of part 3 opens with him not wanting anything to do with karate anymore after witnessing Kwon's death. Macchio stressed that "At that point it was about shedding karate from his life. I mean, at that moment, this has brought in recent time nothing but difficulty. Kids fighting, arguing, churning up the rivalry of yesteryear and then it ending in this tragic way."

For Daniel, the point of the Sekai Taikai was to spread the lessons of Miyagi-Do Karate on a worldwide scale, but the events of Cobra Kai season 6 instead caused more damage than they did good, according to Macchio.

"The intention was to bring Miyagi Dojo to the world stage and spread that legacy in a positive way. And this did just the opposite."

While serving as one of the darker chapters in Daniel's life, Macchio credited the Cobra Kai showrunners for crafting a path to get the Karate Kid icon back on his feet, "It's really the guys who created the show had to take this. You got to hit rock bottom to bounce back up. So, the end of 610 is rock bottom and a complete unraveling and loss of control of what the intentions were."

But in the end, karate is a part of Daniel's DNA, meaning it was only a matter of time before he resumed his duties as a Senshi, as Macchio stated, "So for LaRusso, at that point, it's about, he says in this episode, just focus on safe and happy going forward. There's no reason to go back. But just when they thought he was out, they pull him back in."

Getting A Happy Ending Between Johnny Lawrence & Daniel LaRusso

"And for Billy and I, becoming such good friends during this journey..."

One of the driving forces of the Cobra Kai series was the continuation of Johnny and Daniel's rivalry, which began all the way back in 1984, only to see it evolve into one of the most unlikely alliances. As much fun as they had to be on opposite sides, Macchio admitted that "The one thing that has been proven over the course of Cobra Kai is we love to see Daniel and Johnny like this (butting heads), but we also like to see 'em like this (holding hands) because the fans were even ahead of it because they see how different, but the same they are."

In another world, things could have played out very differently, with Macchio bringing up how fans "see that maybe if Johnny Lawrence ran into Mr. Miyagi and Daniel LaRusso was dropped on the doorstep of John Kreese, their lives may be totally different. That's playing that through line, throughout the series, has been really all the richer."

But as Daniel and Johnny made it to the point of becoming friends, Macchio shared the biggest joy he and Cobra Kai co-star William Zabka had on-screen, "For Billy and I, becoming such good friends during this journey and on this journey, life friends for that matter now 20 years ago, I would've said, ‘What? Are you crazy?’ And here we are. I think it shows such evolution for Daniel to have Johnny's back and put his friend before everything else, that they appreciate that and they both grow in a real paramount way going forward. And I think the fans are going to love that."

Stay tuned for ScreenRant's other Cobra Kai season 6 part 3 interviews, including: